Actor James Cromwell Leads Vegan Milk Protest at NYC Starbucks

CLAY: You watch Succession, right?

BUCK: Yeah, of course.

CLAY: Oh, it’s such a good show on HBO, so entertaining, so well written. The character who was protesting in New York City, it’s like they pulled it directly out of Succession. Like, they should use this footage as a part of the series. He couldn’t be playing any more perfect to type based on that clip. It’s near where you live, right, where the protest was going on?

BUCK: Yes! Yes! Very much so. But let me… Since we’re talking about, we’ll give you the CPI number and inflation and all this in Ukraine in a second. Since we’re talking… This guy is James Cromwell. He plays the Greenpeace-obsessed environmentalist smug lib brother of the patriarch of the family in the show.

It’s essentially very loosely based on Fox, the idea behind the show, the massive media empire. And this brother just is rich ’cause he’s the brother and was there early on, and so now he’s kind of the classic elite lib lunatic in the show. In real life he superglues his hand a few blocks from where I live to the top of a Starbucks counter because the vegan milk prices are too high!

CLAY: Can you imagine?

BUCK: Clay, there’s so much here. First of all, it’s plant juice. It’s not milk. Plants don’t lactate, okay? There’s no milk involved here. I understand they can say it’s a branding thing but spell it “m-y-l-k” or something ’cause it’s not actually milk and the libs who get so mad at me, “Oh, capitalism!” It’s more expensive for the vegan milk because it’s more expensive.

CLAY: Of all the things that you could protest in America right now, is there anything that you could protest that would make you more out of touch with America than the price of vegan milk? I hear that, and reason why I say it feels like it should be on a television program is it’s so easy to satirize out-of-touch, left-wing — let’s be honest — rich people.

If you are protesting the price of vegan milk, you are self-satirizing yourself to such an extent… It’s almost impossible, Buck, if you and I were sitting around and we were like, “Hey, what’s the most out-of-touch protest that you can think of?” the price of vegan milk for your coffee being too high at Starbucks might win. Like, I don’t know that we could come up with a more out-of-touch protest than this.

BUCK: In fact, if they put this in the show Succession and this same Greenpeace environmental wacko commie actor had this as a scene, you’d be, like, “That’s really funny, because he superglues his hand to a counter.”

CLAY: Yes.

BUCK: Can you imagine you’re the hourly wage employee at Starbucks, you’re just trying to get through your day like everybody else and get your paycheck and go, and you’ve got this lunatic supergluing his hand to the desk? And beyond this, you sit here and you say to yourself, “We could see a protest right now…” If he had done this somewhere and said, “Hey, we need to draw attention to the crazy high price — in fact, the scarcity of — baby formula.”

CLAY: Yes, right.

BUCK: I would say, “You know what? Like, this guy’s got a point. More people need to paying attention to this.” But saying that your oat milk or your vegan, soy turmeric latte is a little too pricey, you cannot make this stuff up. It’s not real milk. This is udder madness.

CLAY: Oh. Well, played.

BUCK: Thank you. Thank you.

CLAY: Also, if it’s too expensive, drink water, right? You don’t have to have coffee which to your point on the baby formula shortage — and when did this idea start? Buck, when did this come about? Because it started to happen at NBA games, too, where these activists are trying to superglue themselves to things. Like, they tried to superglue themselves to the basketball court now. This seems to be a new trend in protests that you superglue yourself to the venue in some way. When did this start, and how did they un-superglue you, right? Like, it doesn’t seem like it would be a very safe way to protest either, right? Like, I don’t know how you remove glue.

BUCK: It sticks anything to anything. This sounds like a really bad idea. I don’t know why anybody would think this is… I mean, at least do the old, you know, handcuff yourself to the pipe or something, right? At least that seems a little more civilized.

CLAY: I just don’t get it. But this is — and imagine if you were, Buck, just busy at work. Like, let’s say you were just trying to go in and get a coffee and then you walk in, and some guy has superglued himself to the counter.

BUCK: I would assume —

CLAY: You’d be like, “Hey, this sucks.”

BUCK: I would assume if actor James Cromwell who plays —

CLAY: Who also, by the way, was the president in some of the Jack Ryan movies, right, like Clear and Present Danger, for some of our audience out there that might not know him from Succession.

BUCK: That’s right.

CLAY: He was in, if you remember, I think it was Clear and Present Danger.

BUCK: Yeah. He was in The Green Mile as well, if you remember The Green Mile.

CLAY: Yeah.

BUCK: I think that’s the one whose wife, you know, is very sick and that actor —

CLAY: If you watch movies at all, you would recognize this guy from, you know, the last 25 years.

BUCK: I hate to say, I mean, he’s actually a good actor.

CLAY: He’s a great actor.

BUCK: He’s a good actor. Put that aside. But, Clay, it’s also amazing. As we were saying, if you were constructing an out of touch — and he wasn’t the only one. There are other people there, like, “Make my soy milk cheaper,” you know? And I’m gonna tell you this right now.

CLAY: Yeah.

BUCK: The only males who get upset about soy milk jokes actually suffer from a lack of testosterone, ’cause otherwise, why do you care? People say, “Oh, I have lactose intolerance.” Right. So then drink your almond milk. That’s fine. People who take offense, it does kind of cut them for some reason. They get angry.